So the main conflict in my story is the MC's possible pregnancy. There are many subplots at work, but the maybe-baby weaves through the entire story. Today, my boyfriend asked to read my first 10,000 words. His first response upon finishing it? "There's a lot in there about menstruation." (Actually, there are probably only three references so far to periods, but I guess for guys, that's a lot.) I said to him, "What do you think a girl thinks about when she might be pregnant?!" And then I reminded him that my novel was not really meant for a male audience.
Duh.
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Dianne
NaNoWriMo 2009 - Ignoring June
29,135 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 11 02
Lol! My husband asked me what mine was about and I told him the gist. I think he got a bit confused and thought I was writing about my own wish to reconnect with an old boyfriend from high school when I have absolutely no wish at all to reconnect with the guy I dated back then. I had to reassure him that it was all fiction. :)
71,458 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 15 45
that made me literally laugh out loud.
my husband hasn't asked to read anything i've written since he read the first short story i wrote in high school and in depressed him terribly. well, that was the point, dear!
note that i haven't asked him to either. maybe when all is said and done, but he's really not a literary critic :P
----------34,301 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 05 52
I don't mind my guy reading my work. He's a bookworm and comes from a family of bookworms. He reads lots of different genres, from scifi graphic novels to real literature. So he can speak knowledgably about characterization, plot holes, etc. I actually really appreciate his input. But the comment about periods cracked me up!
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Dianne
NaNoWriMo 2009 - Ignoring June
48,420 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 21 51
My husband hasn't asked to read my work so far, but sometimes he paces around me, trying to sneak a look, or at least that's what it seems to me, the eternal paranoid. I'm very secretive with my stuff, you see.
LOL at the periods comment. :o)
----------"What is essential is invisible to the eye." The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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-Actively helping raise the bar on Chick Lit since Nov '09-
8,199 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 08 18
I let my boyfriend read part of my novel, since he's also participating in Nano Wrimo, and he wanted me to describe the female leads in more detail. For example, there's a scene where one of my MC's mentions something about slipping into something more comfortable, and he wanted to know what she was slipping into. Basically, he wanted to know if they were hot. Hahah!
38,553 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 18 57
My husband wants to read mine, but I won't let him till it's done and at least part-way edited. I keep changing things -- major enough things that anyone reading it without being able to read my mind would be like "Um, this makes no sense, you contradict yourself all over the place." So I told him once I go back in December/January and fix all the things that I am not letting myself fix now, then he can read it. He's not going to like it, but he can read it ;)
At least your boyfriend didn't freak out thinking you were wanting to get pregnant! (Or already pregnant!)
----------Erin
aproposofnothingblog@gmail.com
34,301 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 09 27
Lord, no! He's well aware of my stance on babies. They're nice...someday. I don't think he's worried about hidden messages because 1) I've never been one to use them, and 2) for the rest of the book, the character is NOT happy about possibly being pregnant.
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Dianne
NaNoWriMo 2009 - Ignoring June
50,836 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 12 05
Love the comment about periods! My book is about the high school boy coming back after 35 years and a weekend meet up - the kids and family and ex-spouses get involved and so my boy friend (who happens to be my high school sweetheart who came back after 35 years, hmmmm) wanted to know if his character was likeable. I haven't let him read it yet and he hasn't asked. After I told him he was being depicted as strong, manly and loveable, he was so pleased he didn't ask any more. Don't you just love the creative license?
d
----------Deborah Chaddock Brown, freelance writer specializing in web content; helping customers connect via the Internet. www.allwriteink.com. But by night I'm a frustrated first person, tongue in check, fiction writer striving to write the great American novel.